All About: House Spirits
Well, it's about time I brought them up once again, in their own post. This guide may be on the lengthy side, but it's here to explain what they are and how to begin working with them.
What the hell is a house spirit?
House spirits come from all different cultures and folklore. Known as, you guessed it, guardians of the home. They protect the house itself, the land around it (they get along with the land spirit(s) most of the time), and they also protect the family if treated right. A home certainly doesn't feel like one without these presiding spirits helping. In fact it gives the home a life of it's own.
What do they look like? Are there types?
Across many cultures, there are these spirits and the folklore varies for each. In my tribe, we consider them to usually be little dwarves or goblins that must be appeased, otherwise they will cause bad luck or even resort to curses. Regular offerings are required. Then there are the land spirits, which is a whole other topic. If given regular offerings and respect, we believe that they will not only generate good luck and events for us, but protect us and help with our daily lives. For the witches of the tribe, they will often assist in rituals and spells. That all being said, this has carried over into my personal beliefs. Many cultures describe house spirits assisting with the same things and if they are displeased, bad occurrences following. As far as looks go, it depends on the folklore surrounding your area and your cultural background(s). You may believe in one or two types or an entire spectrum of house spirits from the realm of the fair folk. You could have one house spirit or twelve. It's entirely up to your home. In some cultures, there are door spirits (yes, that guard the doors) and ones that work in the kitchen, among others for different functions of the home.
Okay so, I live in an apartment building. Can I still work with them?
Yes. When I used to live in apartments, I found it was an either/or situation regarding how many were there. Some buildings have only a few that roam around, sometimes only one that protects the entire building, or there may be multiple hanging out in one apartment. Most complexes have multiple however. And then for the lucky buildings that have one for each apartment...those are nice. I've included a short offering ritual at the end of this post, which you can use to ask questions about whatever you wish to know, including how many there are in the building.
What kind of offerings do they like?
Milk, honey, bread, and herbs are a safe bet. They especially like bread baked by you, as they see it as a labor of love and that your energy is in there. Taking time to tend to the garden and taking care of your property & home in general are things they like to see. Don't leave the house a huge mess, as many prefer a tidy atmosphere. Not an offering per say, but important to mention nonetheless.
What should I put on their altar?
I keep my altar for them in the kitchen, as it is in a place that is undisturbed and can't be torn up by my land shark (aka, my dog). I also feel that most of the house spirits I have worked with in my life enjoy hanging out in this area of the home. They seem to like assisting in kitchen magic and cooking in general and the warmth of the stove. You may also want to include a small area near the front door if you believe that there are separate spirits for there. I'd recommend a shelf, as it won't take up as much space in the entryway.
Okay, back on track. Plants (if the space gets enough light), a cauldron, candles, offering bowls, a chalice, glass, or mug of some sort. A special spoon to stir the drinks or potions with. Decorative pieces from nature. Things you craft by hand.
How can I begin working with them?
Anytime, in reality. However, you do have to develop an actual relationship with them. This can take time and the more you speak to them, give offerings, and invite them in as you cook or clean, the more they will be willing to help with your spellwork, wards, and healing. Try the introduction ritual I've included. See what happens. Document it. Try again another time the following week. And just...keep going. Make sure that they know you haven't forgotten about them by leaving a small nightly glass of milk out before you head to bed. It doesn't have to be filled to the rim (hey, cost of living is ridiculous right now). It can be a splash with a squirt of honey added. Or a sprinkle of herbs on their bowl. Or maybe a small helping of what you whipped up for dinner. Point is to show them that you acknowledge and respect their presence. That will be the biggest component. Do the ritual once a week until you start seeing signs of contact. Once you do, make your own ritual with them. Incorporate them into your daily life. Ask them to help with blessing your cooking. Ask them to make sure your wards are in tact. Ask the door spirit to purify the energy of anyone that walks in & make bad people resist coming by. Start seeing if they'd like to sit in on a ritual, if you feel comfortable with that idea. Ask for a blessing when you clean the house & to assist you in removing all the bad energy.
Brief introductory ritual
To introduce yourself to your house spirits, I recommend sitting in your kitchen. If you consider your hearth to be the living room, you can choose to do it there. Make sure to bring offerings with that you feel will be applicable. Freshly baked bread (from your own hands) and some milk with honey stirred in would make a wonderful first treat. I usually introduce myself in a new home by bringing these treats to the location of choice, and start by speaking my intention aloud which goes something like:
"Spirits of the home,
Guardians and Protectors of this dwelling,
Please come sit with me and enjoy these offerings.
I wish to have a working relationship where we can honor, respect, and help each other."
I usually spend about ten-twenty minutes meditating after this is spoken aloud. Sometimes you will feel a strong presence. This is the time I take to set up my kitchen altar as well. If there is a place that I am able to create a mini-altar by the front door, I do so there for the door spirits. The land spirits get their own little thing out in the backyard. I've found in the many places I've lived, they almost always work together and some house spirits spend quite some time out there too!
From here on out, you'll develop your relationship with regular offerings and take it from there!
There’s lots of Witchcraft within our modern times that can be done online. Especially mobile. Many people have a phone even if they don’t have a computer. This makes carrying a digital grimoire and/or secret craft a lot easier. Yet there are some, that still struggle with finding some good resources. So this post is made for just that.
Keep in mind that everything is meant primarily for phones, since that’s the most common thread among digital Witchcraft.
Free Apps
⚜️ TimePassages: An app for astrology lovers! It has a moon tracker as well as daily horoscope (if you’re into that) but one of the best features is its extensive and detailed birth chart information. It includes a birth chart wheel and all its aspects. It’s a great source for working with planetary energies within and without the self. It’s an all around great app.
⚜️ Rock Identifier - Stone ID: There are several apps that claim to identify stones and Crystals but this is the highest rated and the one I enjoy the most. It not only identifies the stone but can offer a bit of info on some of the beliefs around that stones energy.
⚜️ About Herbs: This is a wonderful app that doesn’t get enough love. It’s an app that discusses medicinal advantages and disadvantages of various plants. They are presented by the Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center, and provide links to the research to back up their claims. They also make it clear that they are for informational purposes and not to self diagnose, or self medicate without proper treatments from your doctor. They are a wonderful app for those who prefer herbal medicine.
Web Sites
⚜️ Divination:
Tarot: This website sells their decks but also gives free single card draws for all of them. What’s great about it is that while tarot does have basic meanings they all share, the artwork on each deck plays a significant role in each meaning, making the reading far more unique then the average deck
Runes: A fairly simple and easy to use rune generator. They offer several spreads as well as the history behind the practice and meanings on each rune.
⚜️ Sigil Generators: Each website offers a different style to the sigils they create. Each as well has a downloadable feature for those sigils you make.
Sigil Engine
Psychic Science
Sigil Scribe
⚜️ Digital Altars: Digital altars can play an important role for the TechnoPagan. So these are some makers that you can use to make your own.
Picrew
Spells8
Text Symbols
These easily copy and pasted symbols are great for digital spell work and rituals.
⚜️ Gender:♂♀ ⚦ ⚨ ⚩ ⚤ ⚢ ⚣ ⚥ 🜢 ⚲
⚜️ Beliefs: ⛤ ⛧ 🜏 ☥ ࿊ ࿋ ࿌ ♱ ॐ ௐ † ☩ ۞
⚜️ Alchemy: 🜁 🜂 🜃 🜄 🜋 🜌 🜔 🜕 🜖 🜗 🜙 🜚 🜛 🜳 🝆 🝊 🝕 🝖 🝘 🝢 🝦 🝩 🝮 🜎 🜍 🜞 🜟 🜣 🜤 🜥 🜦 🜩 🜪 🜻 🜹 🜼 🜾 🝰 🝪 ྿ ☉ ☽
⚜️ Zodiac: ♈︎ ♉︎ ♊︎ ♋︎ ♌︎ ♍︎ ♎︎ ♏︎ ♐︎ ♑︎ ♒︎ ♓︎
⚜️ Aspects: ☊ ☋ ☌ ☍ ⚺ ∠ ⚹ □ △ ⚼ ⚻
⚜️ Planets: ☿ ♀ ♁ ♂ ♃ ♄ ♅ ♆ ♇
⚜️ Moons: ⚷ ⚸ ⚳ ⚴ ⚵ ⚶ ☾
⚜️ Stars: ☼ ✬ ✫ ★ ✯ ✧ ✪ ⚝ ✩ ✶ ✷ ✸ ✹ ⁂ ⁑ ✰
⚜️ Runic: ᚠ ᚡ ᚢ ᚣ ᚤ ᚥ ᚦ ᚧ ᚨ ᚩ ᚪ ᚫ ᚬ ᚭ ᚮ ᚯ ᚰ ᚱ ᚲ ᚳ ᚴ ᚵ ᚶ ᚷ ᚸ ᚹ ᚺ ᚻ ᚼ ᚽ ᚾ ᚿ ᛀ ᛁ ᛂ ᛃ ᛄ ᛅ ᛆ ᛇ ᛈ ᛉ ᛊ ᛋ ᛌ ᛍ ᛎ ᛏ ᛐ ᛑ ᛒ ᛓ ᛔ ᛕ ᛖ ᛗ ᛘ ᛙ ᛚ ᛛ ᛜ ᛝ ᛞ ᛟ ᛠ ᛡ ᛢ ᛣ ᛤ ᛥ ᛦ ᛧ ᛨ ᛩ ᛪ ᛫ ᛬ ᛭ ᛮ ᛯ ᛰ
⚜️ Ogham: ᚁ ᚂ ᚃ ᚄ ᚅ ᚆ ᚇ ᚈ ᚉ ᚊ ᚋ ᚌ ᚍ ᚎ ᚏ ᚐ ᚑ ᚒ ᚓ ᚔ ᚕ ᚖ ᚗᚘ ᚙ ᚚ ᚛ ᚜
⚜️ Trigram: ☰ ☱ ☲ ☳ ☴ ☵ ☶ ☷
⚜️ Nature: ❧ ❦ ♣ ♧ ꕥ 𑁍 ❁ ✻ ✽ ❃ ❈ ❊ ✿ ❆ ❅ ✱
⚜️ Geometry: ◆ ◇ ✧ ❖ ✦ ✧ ⬪ ⬫ ░ ▒ ▓ █ ▄ ▌▐ ▀ ■ □ ▢ ▣ ▤ ▥ ▦ ▧ ▨ ▩ ▫ ▬ ▭▮▯▰ ▱ ▲ △ ▴▵▶▸▹►▻▼ ▽▾▿◀◂◃◄ ◅ ◆ ◇ ◈ ◉ ◊ ○ ◌ ◍ ◎ ● ◐ ◑ ◒ ◓ ◔ ◕ ◖◗ ◢ ◣ ◤ ◥ ◦ ◧ ◨ ◩ ◪ ◫ ◬ ◭ ◮ ◯ ◰ ◱ ◲ ◳ ◴ ◵ ◶ ◷ ❍ ❏ ❐ ❑ ❒ ❘ ❙ ❚ ⬒ ⬓ ⬔ ⬕ ⬖ ⬗ ⬘ ⬙ ⬚ ⬝ ⬞ ⬟ ⬠ ⬡ ⬢ ⬣ ⬤ ⬥⬦⬧ ⬨ ⬩ ⬬ ⬭ ⬮ ⬯ ⭓ ⭔
⚜️ Currency: £ € $ ¢ ¥ ƒ ₧ ¤
⚜️ Misc: ♡ ❥ ∞ ♤
“Wandering eyes will forget their intentions” sigil for @moonwaterwitchy
Sigil requests are currently closed
-Mod Pyre
[x] Lavender: happiness, peace
[x] Sandalwood: healing, spirituality
[x] Marjoram: health, love, protection
[x] Rose quartz: love, emotional healing, release of stress
[x] White organza bag: peace, love, acceptance
[x] Red organza bag: strength, healing
[x] Lotus flower charm: purity, peace, serenity
Thought I would take this time to share some original content with everyone!
Last week my grandfather passed away, and I felt the need to create some magic for my family to carry with them while we process this difficult loss.
I created charm bags centered around healing from grief and loss with different options for herbs and colors for the bags along with their correspondences.
Before I placed everything in the bag, I cleansed everything in the smoke of frankincense & myrh.
✨Reblogable, just don’t delete the caption & repost✨
*longer read*
Pretty easily applied for both beginner, closet and experienced practitioners alike! Can be used in most areas of mundane and magickal life (with some ideas listed below).
→ Cleansing, clarity, blessing, healing, innocence, truth, connection to spirits or the spiritual world, divine connection, consecration, dream work, psychic connection, purity, rest, moon magic, angelic work, devotion, harmony, prayer, peace, purification, universal truths. White can also be used as an all-purpose color for your intention when the color you want is not available.
→ Banishing, transformation, uncrossing, endings, domination, protection, reversing, repulsion, freedom from evil, cursing, cloaking, sophistication, security, emotional safety, closure, breaking patterns, grief, mourning, absorbing, removing, trapping, encasing, the unconscious, mystery, shielding from the evil eye, *similarly to white - as black is an absence of colour it can be used for any colour if you don’t have them available* - personal opinion
→ Passionate love, energy, action, attraction, sexuality, magnetism, will, force, anger, fire within, courage, warmth, lust, drive, pleasure, vitality, vigor, excitement, desire.
→ New opportunities, new ventures, new beginnings, change of plans, encouragement, opening the way, removing blocks, physical comfort, warmth, security, ambition, creativity, courage, optimism.
-> Optimism, prosperity, happiness, good luck, attraction, success, confidence, visibility, fame, self-esteem, communication, concentration, focus, inspiration, intellect, logic, memory, knowledge, learning.
→ Prosperity, abundance, wealth, generosity, money luck, career, growth, fertility, gambling luck, business, a good job, harmony, balance, healing, self-love, altruism, universal love, contact with fae and nature spirits.
→ Reconciliation, harmony, peace, kindness, healing, ideas, intelligence, wisdom, loyalty, sleep, meditation, communication, creativity, dream work, trust, blessings, calm, forgiveness, truth, bliss, inspiration, fidelity, honesty.
→ Healing, calming, tranquility, spirituality, meditation, pacification, cooperation, sensitivity, compassion, empathy, selflessness, empowerment, controlling, commanding, mastery, power, ambition, achievement, charisma, luxury, expansion, psychic ability, spirituality, authenticity, truth, transformation, insight, justice, wisdom, politics, divination, ESP, intuition, wishes, influence.
→ Romantic love, friendship, soul mates, sweet feelings, emotional healing, heart connection, affection, family love, admiration, physical tranquility, nurturing, warmth, youthfulness, healing grief, compassion, forgiveness, beauty, unconditional love.
→ Justice, balance, grounding, court cases, legal matters, being down-to-earth, practical matters, seriousness, reliability, support, stability, safety, earth, nature, animals, home, nostalgia, basic needs being met, balance.
→ Neutrality, neutralizing, invisibility, working in “gray areas,” anonymity, hiding from others, working in-between worlds, secrets, occult and arcane wisdom, reversing, uncovering mysteries and secrets, lifting curses, undoing prior spell work.
→ Dreams, intuition, psychic work, courtesy, honor, moon magic, rhythm, cycles, divination, illusions, glamour spells, wisdom.
→ Prosperity, fame, luxury, generosity, optimism, wisdom, enlightenment, victory, sun magic, confidence, life force, power, attraction, magnetism, vigor, charisma.
*highly recommend Madame Pamita’s Book of Candle Magic - covers colour magic especially in relation to spell work with candles.
→ candle magick
→ glamour magick - also wearing/makeup using a colour which corresponds to the property you desire (good for closet witches)
→ sigil magick
→ craft magick
→ kitchen witchery - eg. Putting a specific colour food dye in a cake or drink etc
(Essentially anything you want!)
Merry meet,
Atti <3
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good crystal necklace but you don’t get much say in what intentions it manifests and the energy it releases. Enchanting a pendant can open a whole new realm of possibilities using herbs, stones and candles to bring in all the energies that you wish to carry with you in a single necklace.
For this beautiful cicada pendant I wanted it to bring me protection, luck and power.
What you’ll need
A black candle - I used two
Protection herbs and incense: I used a bay leaf, black salt, dragons blood and lavender
For power I used snake skin and for good luck I used cinnamon - these intentions were secondary so I only used a single herb for each
Protective crystals: I used black tourmaline and clear quartz
Steps:
Cleanse your space in your preferred method
Get in the right headspace: you can do this by meditating on your intentions
Set up your alter with the surrounding the pendant with crystals and your black candle. Light them up
Call on any spirit guides to aid you, and begin focusing on your intention
Touch the pendant, ask it for aid and begin envisioning your energy seep into it as you focus
Sprinkle each herb onto your pendant - setting your intention with each one. Tell your pendant what the herb will do
Do the same thing with your crystals, touch them and then your pendant. Infusing those vibes
Talk to your pendant - reiterate what you want, thank it, etc
Let it sit on your alter. Allow the herbs and crystals to stay with it until your candle finishes burning
Protection is so important! And having a pendant that you personally enchant is so powerful! Why not give your favourite necklace a little magic?
Bonus extra step:
Every morning before I put any necklace on I always give the pendant a little kiss and ask it for aid in my day. It just feels right haha
Let's talk Travel Altars 🖤
My travel altar is something I use pretty often, since I do alot of my spell work outside.
Everyone's (travel) altars will look different. They should be custom to your craft specifically.
Contents
The container I use is an old make-up box with a mirror 🪞
A bag of crystals 🔮 (currently it houses: jet, tourmaline, bloodstone, moonstone, amethyst, clear quartz, and bronzite)
My pendulums, I also keep a pendulum mat folded in my box (see it located under everything)
A journal and pen. I use these to write when sitting outside, when listening to spirits, or when making sigils.
My tarot cards. Currently I use my Radiant Rider-Waite deck. I also bring its reference book 📖
Herbs and oils, as well as an empty jar and bag for collection purposes. Pictured: pink salt, ashes, lavender, rose petals, sage, cinnamon.
My cauldron
Incense, currently I keep some palo santo that was gifted to me.
My Mortar and Pestel, and a small silver plate (used to hold things or as an offering plate when needed)
A small metal tin (I have the ouija board tin from sprit halloween) filled with different colored birthday candles and a box of matches.
Packing it all up
Everything I need is able to be packed away into this little box, with room for more.
I use my altar for my craft, which is primarily focused on spirit work. Yours may not look the same, but I hope mine can bring you inspiration for your own.
Blessed be 🌒🌕🌘
Hello my greenies! I know I’ve been absent for quite some time, but I’ve been having some personal stress and needed to clear my head. While I was doing this, I came up with some tea and spells to help realign myself and goals.
Holy Basil is used in a lot of different ways, but today we are focusing on it clearing “mental fog” and centering ourselves in the present. This tea has helped my anxiety and feel as if I could move on.
*Holy basil can have an anti fertility effect on both women and men, so if you’re pregnant or wishing to conceive at the moment, I would recommend not using this herb. This does not mean it will make you infertile though.
Ingredients
2 1/5 tbsps of dried holy basil
a slice of ginger
1 tbsp of dry hibiscus
1 tbsp of honey
Directions
boil the water in a kettle.
place the holy basil and hibiscus in a spacious strainer, then clockwise pour the water over the strainer.
place in the thin slice of ginger and let steep for about 5 minutes.
after, take out the herbs and place in the honey and stir counterclockwise while saying the chant.
“I am treading in this misty lake, my mind wilts like the fall flowers. Clear this path and help me reach shore, for I am spring and am needed once more.”
I hope this can help ground you as much as it has for me. I expect to be posting regularly again and thank you all for your patience.
*^* …also it’s my birthday on April 13th…just a heads up <3
- Kenzie
Edmund | he/him | 22 | digital altar & spell gathering corner | non wiccan eclectic witch (spirit work, sigilcraft, technomancy, death craft, pop culture craft, etc.) | new to the craft & willing to learn
160 posts